Montpelier's Peg Tassey closes Zerafa salon to pursue other dreams
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Peg Tassey, owner of Zerafa hair salon in Montpelier, is closing her business after more than two decades of serving customers who came from all over Vermont as well as adjacent states. Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus |
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By Sarah Hinckley Times Argus Staff - Published: January 10, 2009
MONTPELIER Maybe now Peg Tassey will have time to finish the book that inspired the name of her State Street salon.
Zerafa, the Arabic word for giraffe, means beautiful one, according to an excerpt from Michael Allin's best-selling book by that name. For the last nine years the window at 6 State St. has worn the title, which encapsulates the concept for those who come to sit before Tassey and leave renewed.
At the end of business hours today, after 27 years as a hairstylist, Tassey is hanging up her scissors. A combination of health problems and greater opportunities on the horizon are among the reasons for her retirement.
"I didn't get to finish the book because I opened a business and I haven't opened a book since," said Tassey, 51, of the downtown salon that featured Aveda products. "I'm really not a good hairdresser. I think my strengths have been to help people look like how they feel inside.
Whatever type of beautiful they want to be."
Tassey's career in coiffures began just one street over from where it is ending. She is not clear whether it was 1979 or '80 when she set up shop in a parking space outside Buch Spieler Music. Storeowner Fred Wilber crafted a sign and she had a chair and was paid to perform her first punk rock hairdo.
"It mainly had to do with the music, people were having a lot of fun with their hair," said Tassey, who lives in Calais and was a music performer for a number of years.
Although she had more of a passion for singing, Tassey noted there was one real reason she kept with the cutting.
"I could make more money at it per hour than anything else," she said on Thursday in her shop, which is just as busy now as when it opened.
"It's such an incredible location," said Tassey who has had about 36 employees, including receptionists and other stylists, work in the space with her. "You just can't get a better place to have a business in town."
The 330-square-foot space looks relatively barren these days, Tassey is looking to sell all the fixtures and furniture, as well as any remaining products. But, the crock of hot cider will be on for visitors until the door closes at the end of today.
"I've been trying to shut 27 years of business down," she said. "I just keep saying it over and over, because I just can't believe it."
Neither can a lot of her longtime customers.
"I'm really freaking out, I don't know what I'm going to do," said Ellen Leonard, who has been seeing Tassey exclusively for 10 years and stopped in with a good-bye gift. "I used to always have plain, straight hair. She was the first to cut my hair in layers.
I never knew I had curl in my hair."
Over the last quarter of a century, some of Tassey's customers have followed her around Vermont. She attended school in Burlington where she was picked by one of the city's top stylists and apprenticed with him. From there she went to work at the salon in The Topnotch Resort in Stowe, opened her own place in Hardwick, and then moved the business to her home at the time in Wolcott.
"People, when they find someone they're comfortable with, they'll drive," said Tassey, noting she has clientele that comes from New Hampshire, New York and throughout Vermont. "They've been so amazing."
Judy Cyprian of Plainfield stopped by the shop on Thursday to pick up a final product order. Tassey has been cutting her hair for 19 years.
"She's the best, she's absolutely the best," said Cyprian who was greeted with a hug from Tassey. "Every time I've strayed, I've been sorry."
While they say it will be difficult to live without her, Tassey admits she gets emotional thinking about saying good-bye to her customers.
"They have been through a lot with me," she said. "I can't think of how much they put up with.
My clients, they have seriously sustained me. It's like having this incredible group of women and men that I get to talk to every day."
From one of the bare, white counters Tassey picked up a box and held it with great affection.
"This is the most valuable thing I have in the shop," she said about the container stuffed full of colorful index cards. "This is 3,000 clients."
Each of the cards holds the secret formula to each head Tassey has colored and cut. That kind of volume was the reason she could consider opening a downtown salon nine years ago along with help from Community Capital of Vermont, based in Barre.
"I was booked two weeks before I even opened the doors here," she said. "I hit the ground running."
While at the location Tassey also opened a spa on the third floor of the building and operated it for five years. The spa ownership changed hands last June.
Tassey was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread muscle, ligament and joint pain. She also has an issue with her shoulder that is aggravated by the movements done while cutting hair. Tassey has been given doctor's orders to stop doing salon work.
"There are days I can't even drive because of the fibromyalgia," said Tassey. "I need some time to heal my body before I start my next career.
I'm going to be breathing and brainstorming and taking walks with my daughter."
Tassey admits it wouldn't have been possible to carry on such a successful business without the support of her daughter, now 14, her fiancι and her mother. But, the next chapter is expected to include music, schooling and whatever other opportunities come her way. Tassey's first endeavor is a musical involvement with a movie project.
"I never aspired to be a hairdresser," she said, reflecting back to what has brought her the most joy. "I know I need to sing. Singing is, like, the most healing thing for me."
Contact Sarah Hinckley at sarah.hinckley@timesargus.com.
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